PHANTOM
by cheesecakelover110
Summary: Part ghost; part machine; part evil; part royalty. Our last hope. Our greatest fear. The heart of a human. The soul of a Phantom.
1. Preface

**Preface**

When the world is crumbling…..

When humanity is rotting….

When there is no such thing as safe….

He is our only hope for survival.

( -Y- )

"7uck, look out!" He knocked him down to the ground just as a huge, furry, nightmarish blade swung at 7ucker's neck, and then the two boys rolled out of the way as another blade tried to cut them in half.

7ucker didn't have a chance to say thank you before yet another blade swung at them. Phantom pulled Sa5m out of the way as she dodged one blade, but was about to be split by another. He didn't have enough time to react, however, before one of the colossal hammers knocked the breath out of him and crushed his ribs.

Phantom screeched in agony and lay on the ground. Jaaz pulled him up before the hammer pounded on the ground right where his chest had been. He healed two seconds after, but his power level was down to three-hundred twenty now. That was too great of a loss.

He shouted at the nightmare that called itself Apocalypse, speaking in its strange language, "I am the rightful heir of the throne, and I command you to release this world!"

The thing made a noise that was ear-splitting, as cold as blood, and somewhere between the sound of nails on a chalkboard, a woman screaming, and an evil, breathy chuckle.

To Phantom, it translated into a hiss that consumed his mind. "You are not the heir to the throne, despite the signs. The heir must be ruthless. They must have no compassion. Perhaps I would bow to you, if you let yourself become so. If you let yourself become what you fear. But you refuse to give in to your blood. I shall keep the Earth as my prize."

And with that, Apocalypse took one metallic claw and speared it through Phantom's chest. Phantom started gasping in shallow breaths, his vision becoming dotted with fuzzy, swimming spots.

"Phantom!" He could barely hear Sa5m crying out his name. He coughed, and his blood- such a dark red that it was almost black- spewed out of his mouth, staining his now-pale lips and teeth red. He grasped the claw, but his power level was almost down to ten. He didn't have any strength to summon. His face became pasty and shiny with sweat.

Within seconds, his power level was down to three.

He slumped, his muscles refusing to move.

Jaaz and 7ucker weren't able to say a word. They couldn't watch Phantom go.

Sa5m couldn't, either, but she also couldn't tear her gaze away. She wanted to so badly.

"Phantom! NO!" she shrieked, tears running down her face. Jaaz and 7ucker's faces soon became covered in tears, too. They still couldn't say a word.

Phantom's eyes glazed over as Apocalypse's claw pulled out of him, twisting so that Phantom's heart came out, too. Apocalypse raised the heart to wherever its lips may have been and ate it. Sa5m, 7ucker, and Jaaz watched in horror as whatever blood Phantom's heart held dripped slowly to the pavement.

And then they heard a sickening burst of flesh. Even more blood than before fell to the ground in hot, thick droplets. Sa5m buried her face in her hands. He was gone. For good.

And so the world fell into the jaws of Apocalypse.

Their last hope was gone.

Humanity was lost.


	2. The Beginning of the End

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.**

**Futuristic Dictionary: **

**Common** – **the language that all** **countries speak.**

**Dotted- stupid; inadequate; foolish.**

**Thrifting- awesome; exciting; cool.**

**Fizzy- sweet; fun; cool; happy.**

**Surgic- awesome; extremely cool; impressive.**

**Fazing out- to tune out; to ignore accidentally; to become lost in one's thoughts.**

**Lotto- lucky.**

**Flippy- suspicious.**

**Fwitching- scary and awesome at the same time; freaky.**

**Jopping- unbelievable; shocking; mind-blowing.**

**Skitz- an exclamation of various definitions.**

**There will be more strange futuristic lingo to come.**

* * *

**The Beginning of the End**

The Apocalypse came without warning.

No one saw it coming.

Barely anyone survived.

Especially one certain boy.

Dan-E FEN701\1 stared at his test with narrowed eyes. Then a spark rushed through his head, and he immediately knew the answer to every question.

He pressed his finger on each letter confidently, grinning. This was much easier than he'd expected.

He pressed the ENTER icon that glowed on his Cube, which was in the form of an academic desk. His Classroom Supervisor looked up at Dan-E, surprised.

"It seems that you've been studying," he remarked. "Good work. Ninety six percent accurate."

Dan-E grinned. "Am I excused, CS?"

"Yes, Dan- E1L. You are excused. Your sister is waiting for you in the Student Café."

Dan-E's grin widened; he said to his Cube, "Daily Schooling completed. Report to Student Café. Jet-pack mode."

His Cube returned to its normal, simple, cube-like shape before re-forming into a jet-pack, strapping itself onto Dan-E's back, and activating the floor panel below him.

"Have a good day, Dan-E1L," the CS said to Dan-E.

"You have a thrifting day, too, sir," Dan-E called back. Silently, he told his Cube, "Free-fall; manual activation. In case of emergency, magnetic pull." He slid his goggles, which were tinted blue, from his messy, jet-black hair to his sky-blue eyes.

The floor panel beneath Dan-E disappeared, causing him to fall from the floating campus. His parents kept telling him not to free-fall from the school, but Dan-E liked the rush. Besides, he'd never even broken anything from doing so. It was perfectly harmless.

As he neared the ground, he tapped his jetpack twice. It activated with a soft hum and immediately, he began to hover. Then the jetpack pushed him down a little ways, toward the café. It de-activated when Dan-E's feet rested on the entrance of the café, which was also floating.

"Destination arrived," he told his Cube. It shrank back into a cube and awaited Dan-E's next orders. "Watch mode," he ordered it. It climbed from his palm to his wrist and secured itself around it, telling him that the time was 3: 41 p.m.

He searched through the Student Café for his seventeen-year-old sister. He eventually found her sitting at the bar, pressing her fingers on the glass menu to order her snack.

He jogged up to join her, jumping onto the stool beside her. With a toss of her incredibly long auburn hair, she turned to him.

"I'm paying. I have more credits than you," she stated with a smile. The two had matching eyes; they were alike in shape, size, and color, except for the fact that Jaaz's eyes seemed a bit larger due to her makeup.

Dan-E smiled back, pressing the "random smoothie" icon in the corner of the menu. "So, why'd you want to meet me here?"

"Just to hang out, you know? I know that you don't have many friends, and I've been missing you for the past week. I figured that it was time for us to hang out. Is that fizzy?" Jaaz took a bite of her fresh chocolate chip cookie, leaving the package surrounding it. She didn't want to get her fingers chocolaty.

"Totally fizzy, Jaaz. I'm glad that you can make space in your popularity for me." Dan-E smiled gratefully at his sister. She was perfect; everyone loved her. And she still kept time for her loser little brother. Jaaz was probably the best older sister in the world.

"Popularity could never replace you," she assured him, tousling his hair and messing up his goggles. "Family is forever."

Dan-E straightened his goggles and smoothed his hair as much as he could, pressing the BILL icon on the menu before Jaaz could stop him.

"Hey!" she protested. "I said that I was paying for it!"

Dan-E surprised her by gripping her into a tight hug. "Too bad. Thrifting sisters don't have to pay for snacks. Dotted brothers do."

Jaaz hugged him back. "You aren't dotted, Dan-E. People are just shallow. Soon they'll see how totally thrifting you are. And then they'll be the dotted ones."

Dan-E pulled back and snorted as he grabbed his Mystery Smoothie and hopped down from his stool, Jaaz following. They were about to leave when Dan-E stopped, having heard something peculiar.

He looked up to see a large crack in the glass ceiling above Jaaz that was growing larger rapidly. He stared at it until he realized: it was going to fall.

"Jaaz!" he shouted, knocking her out of the way. Her momentum landed her across the room, where people stared in shock. Unfortunately, Dan-E was not that lucky.

A large shard of glass stabbed through his stomach. He yelled out in pain. Immediately, the Student Café went into Emergency Mode, flashing red and a siren wailing. The rest of the ceiling fell apart as well, stabbing any unfortunate soul that stepped in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Jaaz tried to push through the rushing people to get to her brother.

"Dan- E!" she cried.

She stopped trying to be polite and forced her way through the crowd of people, running to her brother's side. Immediately, she ripped the glass out, splitting the skin open on her hand as she did so.

And then the two, and the rest of the dead bodies, began to float.

The Café was falling.

Jaaz said to her Cube, "Passenger mode; double jet pack. Emergency speeds to FEN701\1 home."

The Cube formed into a huge jetpack, strapped itself around Jaaz and Dan-E's shoulders, and zoomed downward. Jaaz looked back and saw only frightening, crimson-red eyes peering at her from whatever shadows were left of the cafe.

Danny moaned, and Jazz's head was brought next to her. He was alive. But not for long.

Soon enough, Jaaz and Dan-E arrived at their house. Their parents, Jaak and Mad-E, immediately rushed to hug them.

Then Mad-E saw her son's bloody torso and gasped, tears springing to her eyes. "Jaaz?! What happened to you brother?!"

Jaak saw Dan-E, too, and his heart dropped. "He…he's not…"

Jaaz put two fingers to Dan-E's wrist, which was pulsing very slightly.

"He's alive. But not for long," she stated grimly, her throat closing up. She wiped a tear away from her eye. She wouldn't cry now. She needed to do anything that she could to save the youngest of their family.

Mad-E slapped a piece of paper into Jaaz's confused hands.

"Go." She said firmly. Jaaz glanced at the paper. It held an address.

"What is this?" she asked.

"It's the address of a good friend of ours. He may be able to save Dan-E." Mad-E handed Jaaz something else: a ring. "It's a teleportation device. Your father and I've been working on it. It may be ready. Say the address to the ring, and you'll appear where you want to be."

Jaaz looked up at her mother's beautiful violet eyes and her father's familiar blue ones. "But what about you guys?" she asked, worried. There was something out there. Something that had caused this. It could get her parents. She could fail in saving Dan-E. She could be the only one left out of her family; that was something that she wouldn't be able to take.

"It can't take more than two people," Jaak explained. "Your mother and I'll be fine. Save your brother."

Jaaz tried so hard not to cry as she threw her arms around her father's large body and her mother's small one.

"I love you guys," she choked out.

"We love you, too, Jaaz," they answered back.

"And if something happens, tell Dan-E that we love him just as much," Mad-E added.

Jaaz nodded and read the address to the ring aloud, gripping Dan-E's hand. She found herself, within the blink of an eye, in a dark, cold town, standing in front of a seemingly abandoned house.

It was an old house. The type that they said was used in the 2000's. It was crumbling apart, like everything else in their surroundings. Even the sky was a foggy green-ish color.

Jaaz dashed inside, desperate to save Dan-E. She picked him up and held him with both arms, increasingly aware of how the house's wooden floorboards creaked beneath her pounding feet, how it smelled like mold, dust, rotting meat, and sour milk, and how she was getting the growing feeling that she should not have been there.

Still, Jaaz didn't pause for even a breath, frantically searching the seemingly empty house.

She literally screamed and jumped backwards a meter when she finally ran into someone.

The man was about her height, and ancient, with deep, constant wrinkles, tufts of white hair emerging from his greasy scalp, and a fluffy white beard to match. His posture was stick-straight; he wore a dirty white lab coat over a dusty brown three-piece suit that was, surprisingly, in considerably good shape. With the suit he wore dark brown loafers with holes in them, and a shiny gold chain hung from his pocket.

"Why hello, young lady," he greeted. "What brings you here?"

Jaaz, who was out of breath, held up her brother, whose heart was getting slower and slower. The man nodded and reached for a dusty brown box with a wire and a very large metal clamp connected to it. He set the clamp on Dan-E's torso, and set the box onto the ground, taking Dan-E away from Jaaz's arms and resting him on the ground.

He then flipped a switch on the box. It hummed to life, and Dan-E's breaths became less loud, more even.

"What was that?" Jaaz asked, amazed.

"A life sustainer. But it'll only hold him for three days." He studied Jaaz with foggy, jade-green eyes that sported multiple bags from behind dirty, cracked spectacles.

"What do you plan on doing?"

He answered immediately, "He needs a new body."

"What?!" Jaaz gasped. "What do you mean?"

"I've been working on a robot. If I can make some alterations, he'll be able to inhabit it. He'll be the same, but much more indestructible. Perhaps with a few special abilities."

Jaaz shook her head. "I don't care. As long as you keep him alive."

The man nodded and left. Jaaz followed him to find a large room that seemed like a scene right out of Frankenstein.

"Bring the boy," he ordered.

Jaaz obliged and set Dan-E on the table in the center of the room, next to what seemed to be a human, but was covered with a sheet.

"Do not interrupt me. You have permission to eat anything in the pantry, sleep in the guest bedroom, and read from my library," the man commanded. "You may call me the Professor."

Jaaz nodded, reluctant to leave her brother with a strange old man, but willing to do whatever it took to save him. The Professor sent her away with a wave of his hand.

**(-Y-)**

The Professor worked long and hard on the young man, a thin, lanky boy that looked to be about fifteen or sixteen.

The first thing that he did was modify his robot, a creation meant to be his companion. He could always create another. He altered it so that it was compatible with consciousness, so that the boy could inhabit the robot at all.

As he did, however, the tiniest of monsters entered the machine and melted in with it. This went unbeknownst to the Professor.

He then took his scanner and raised it over the boy, scanning him head to toe. He did likewise for the robot, but when he did so, it seemed to be transformed into a copy. Not an exact copy; a few things were off.

For one thing, the boy's hair was not raven-black; it was white as snow. For another, his skin was slightly darker. The boy was wearing his normal clothing, but in a different color. Instead of a red jacket with the collar sticking up, a tight white T-shirt with a large red X over the chest, dark blue skinny jeans with red knee-high laced boots, and dark blue fingerless gloves, the jacket was white, the shirt was black with a green X over it, the jeans were black, the boots were white, and the gloves were black.

Finally, he took a scalpel and split the boy's skin down the middle of his chest. He winced, still slightly conscious, but otherwise did not make a sound. That meant that he was almost gone. Time was running out.

The Professor carefully used an over-sized pair of tweezers to pluck the boy's heart from his chest and place it in the copy's chest, where there was already an alteration made to re-activate the now-still heart.

As fast as he could, the Professor activated the copy and pressed its palm to the boy's, praying that it would work.

**(-Y-)**

Dan-E woke up feeling much, much more different. At first he felt like he was sinking into something, something strange and not altogether unpleasant, but then he'd been pulled back. And now he felt….stronger.

He saw the same strange old man that had introduced himself as the Professor. He remembered all the way to when his chest had been split open. It had been unbearably painful, but Dan-E couldn't summon enough strength to scream like he wanted to. Then everything had turned….strange. He couldn't remember from then on.

He sat up and saw…himself. Lying down, his chest split open, his stomach a mass of blood.

Was he dead?

"What's going on?!" he asked fearfully to the Professor.

The Professor was startled by his success and the boy's new glowing, neon green eyes. And one more thing: a certain aura about him.

The boy was the heir. He was the heir…

"What's your name?" he asked him.

"Dan-E. Why?"

The Professor shook his head. "You aren't Danny, anymore. You are now to be known as Phantom."

The boy frowned. "Why?"

"You aren't Danny, anymore. Take a look at yourself."

The Professor held a mirror up for the boy to see himself.

He was right. Dan-E wasn't himself anymore.

"What….what did you do to me?"

"I simply tried to re-make your body. All that's different is the color. And, well, a few other things." The Professor studied Phantom. "You'll find out soon enough."

Phantom got up on surprisingly strong legs. He called out, "Jaaz?!"

Jaaz was there within an instant. She looked her new little brother up and down, and then turned to the Professor. "What did you do to him?!"

"He is still the same boy. But his body is different. He is Phantom."

Jaaz frowned at the Professor. "How do I know that he's not different?"

"Ask him a few questions."

Jaaz looked Phantom in the eye. "Who's your hero?"

"Neil Armstrong."

"What's the most thrifting thing ever?"

"NASA Ninja monkey-warriors," Phantom replied easily.

"Who was your first kiss?"

Phantom snorted. "If you're asking for a real one, then I've never kissed a girl."

Jaaz nodded, sighing in relief. "Okay. You're still my brother. Now we have to get back to Mom and Dad."

The Professor asked, "Would your parents happen to be the Fentons?"

Jaaz shook her head. "But close enough. FEN701\1."

"That's how I pronounce the names," the Professor explained. "But that's wonderful. I'm glad to know that I've helped my old friends."

Jaaz grabbed Phantom's hand and said to the ring, "Amity Park, FEN701\1 residence."

The two blinked and found themselves at home.

Except…..

There wasn't a home to come to.

Just ruins.

And their parents, dead on the ground.


	3. Unforgettable

Sa5m MAN501\1 woke up underground, people surrounding her. There had to be about one hundred of them there; Sam could feel their combined body heat fighting the freezing cold air to stay warm.

Quickly, she searched for her grandmother, to find that it was too dark to see. She reached for her hand and found it, clutching it in her own.

Those….those _things_. It all flooded back to Sa5m in a rush. Tears sprang to her eyes. Whatever they were, they were horrible. Like nightmares. They tore apart her parents limb from limb, right in front of Sa5m. She had to watch them die. And then she had puked right where she stood and crumpled to the ground.

Thank God that her grandmother was still alive. It had been a miracle (or more like her grandmother was surprisingly athletic for her age). Sam began to sob at the awful, fresh, bloody memory, wrapping her around her Grandma's plump body and sobbing into her shoulder.

Her grandmother woke up and hugged Sa5m back, smoothing her hair.

"There, there, child," she whispered. "It's alright."

Sa5m shook her head. "I was such a dotted brat. I never got to say good-bye, or I'm sorry, or how much I loved them." She mumbled, gasping after each word.

Grandma MAN501\1 shushed her. "No one's perfect, sweetheart. Your parents never were really offended by your arguments, anyway; they just wanted what was best for you."

This made Sa5m feel a little bit better, but not much. She sniffled, "Do you really think so?"

"I know so."

The two sat, the last of their family.

Sa5m tried again and again to forget the way that her parents had died. She failed every time.

**(-Y-)**

"Mom? Dad?" Jaaz backed away from her and Phantom's parents' lifeless corpses, covering her mouth with one hand and her eyes moistening themselves.

Phantom couldn't speak. He couldn't think. He could hardly breathe. His parents…..they lay on their backs, eyes wide open, but seeing nothing. The worst part about it, was the blood. It was everywhere: drying over their pores, crusting over their eyes, still dripping from their mouths, seeping from their fingernails, and leaving trails of crimson from their ears.

Jaaz turned away from the scene and began to cry, her sobs echoing throughout the destroyed town. Phantom stayed perfectly still, unable to tear his gaze away from them.

The siblings stayed that way for a long time.

**(-Y-)**

Someone touched Sa5m's shoulder. Normally, she would've slapped their hand away, but she wasn't feeling enough like herself to do so, instead shrinking back.

"I'm sorry," a young male voice apologized as the hand left Sa5m's shoulder. "I'm looking for my parents."

"Did you try calling them?" Sa5m asked, her voice cracking.

"Yeah. They haven't answered. I think that they might be….." the boy's voice choked up. Sa5m felt him crumple beside her, and then heard quiet sniffles and sobs.

Feeling unimaginable empathy, Sa5m rested a hand on the boy's shoulder, which was bare and bony. "It's okay. I lost my parents too, except for my grandma."

Grandma MAN501\1 patted Sa5m on the back and told the boy, "We've all lost something today, young man. My granddaughter and I feel great empathy toward you."

The boy sniffled and said, "Thanks."

Sa5m wiped the tears from her eyes on her half-fingered gloves and took a long, deep breath through her nose. She didn't want to cry in front of anyone but her grandmother, whether or not they could see her.

"You know," she said in a low voice, "You could be a part of our family, if you want."

The boy's sniffles became more quiet. "I'd like that," he said. Sa5m could hear the smile in his voice. "I'm 7ucker FOL3\\, by the way."

"Sa5m MAN501\1. This is my grandma."

"You can just call me grandma," Grandma MAN501\1 said.

"Thanks," 7ucker said again, wiping his eyes and sniffling less.

"Do you know where we are?" Sa5m asked.

"We're in a bunker way beneath the ground. It's been reserved for an emergency like this one. Pretty soon, in about an hour or so, they'll turn on the lights and serve us food. If you don't know where you are, your grandmother must've carried you here. Did she?" 7ucker, who figured that the answer was yes, admired the old woman's courage and strength.

"I did," Grandma answered. "And now that you're my grandson, I'll do the same for you if the time comes."

7ucker gazed in awe in the direction of Grandma's voice. "You would do that….for me? You barely know me."

"You are now my grandson, are you not? You are now a part of my family. And I don't abandon family for anything."

Sa5m smiled and squeezed her grandmother's hand. "And that's why I love her so much," she said under her breath.

The small family scooted closer to one another, trying to get used to this new, strange world.

**(-Y-)**

"Come on, Dan-E," Jaaz choked, wiping her now-wet face with her cut-off-sleeved, black turtleneck. "We shouldn't linger here."

Phantom suddenly fell to his knees, grabbed his abdomen, and retched, his hair hanging in his face and sticking to his skin with humidity.

Jaaz knelt down beside him and rubbed his back soothingly. He continued to retch until his throat was raw. Even then, he didn't stop.

Eventually, blood poured out of Phantom's mouth. With it joined a hot, salty tear that slid down his nose and dripped into the dark red puddle.

Jaaz's hands shook. She immediately reached into the pocket of her teal skirt and found a small piece of her cookie. She pulled Phantom's head back and placed it in his mouth. Thankfully, he swallowed it, and then when he retched again, only a little bit of blood came out. The rest was the small piece of cookie.

Jaaz said to her Cube, which was now in watch mode, "Water mode."

The Cube turned into a bottle and sucked the water from the atmosphere. Jaaz poured it down Phantom's throat. He squeezed his eyes tightly closed and swallowed it, thankful of how it temporarily made the burning sensation go away.

Jaaz then gave her brother a tight hug. "It's okay, Dan-E. We have each other. We're all that's left, but we have each other."

Phantom began to shake. He threw his arms around his sister and sobbed into her bare shoulder. A few days ago, he would've been embarrassed that he was crying so much. But now, things like that didn't matter.

Jaaz smoothed Phantom's hair and began to sob some more, but much more quietly than her brother.

"We're what's left," she whispered, sniffling.

Phantom gasped, "They….died..."

"Sshhhhh. It's over now. They're gone. They aren't coming back." Jaaz buried her face in her brother's jacket, the way that his face was still buried in her shoulder. "But we have each other. We're alright."

And then came the whispers.

**(-Y-)**

Sa5m's ear perked up as she heard a faint, whispering sound above the low murmurs of the people around her.

She searched around her, although everything was still pitch-black. And then she heard footsteps. Loud ones.

The bunker fell silent as everyone that was awake heard them as well, and listened.

Sa5m was the first to spot the glowing red eyes.

Someone shrieked, and an alarm was sounded. People began to rush around as red flashing lights lit the room. Sa5m saw the creature, and it made her sick to her stomach.

It was a corpse.

But it was standing, and staring straight at her.

She grabbed 7ucker's hand- which she now saw was dark-skinned- as well as her grandmother's. The three bolted away with the crowd, following the staff's lead.

Then Sa5m heard a small shriek. She turned while running and saw the corpse move with incredible speed towards a little girl.

Sa5m let go of her grandmother's and 7ucker's hand and raced towards the monster and the girl, snatching the toddler away from its grip and breaking its fingers.

It opened its mouth and hissed at her, and then grabbed at her. Sa5m shrieked and backed away. It was behind her in a flash; it took hold of her neck with cold, rough fingers.

Sa5m squeezed her eyes tightly, hot tears streaming down her cheeks. Here was her end.

And then the fingers released her neck. Sa5m spun on her heel and found 7ucker smashing his backpack into the corpse's face. He stomped on it with brown, laced combat boots and glanced up at Sa5m with startling, aqua-green eyes.

Grandma MAN501\1 grabbed her granddaughter and new grandson's hands and started running again. Sa5m dared to look back. More corpses were speeding after them. The little girl that she held with her free arm clutched Sa5m's neck and hid her face in Sa5m's hair.

One of the corpses grabbed Sa5m's arm, but Sa5m temporarily let go of the little girl, knowing that she was holding on tightly enough to her neck to stay with them, and punched the corpse in the face, still running while losing it.

She then held the girl with her arm again and kept her grip on her grandmother's hand.

Somehow, the four of them made it above ground.

"Hop in," a man told them. He stood in front of a hovercraft, which Sa5m, Grandma MAN501\1, 7ucker, and the little girl gladly jumped into, strapping themselves into their seats.

"What were those things?" 7ucker asked.

Grandma glanced around them, looking for one. "They're evil."

Sa5m shook her head. "No," she said quietly, catching everyone on the hovercraft's attention. "They're the Forgotten."

**(-Y-)**

"Dan-E…" Jaaz trailed off, trying to warn her brother about the strange whispers. She had already stood and picked up a sharp piece of rubble, holding it as a weapon.

Phantom, however, was still crouched on the floor, his eyes squeezed tightly shut.

And then, out of the eerie grey mist that surrounded Sector AP13, came…..a person?

Jaaz squinted, trying to make out the figure. And then she saw glowing red eyes. She dropped her weapon.

"Dan-E." she tugged at Phantom's jacket urgently. "Dan-E, get up! There's something coming!"

Phantom shook his head.

"Dan-E!" The creature began to move more quickly towards them. Jaaz saw that it was humanoid, but horribly disfigured.

Jaaz gave up on trying to break her brother out of his trance and she summoned all of her strength to sling him over her shoulder. She picked the sharp rubble back up and ran.

The creature was right behind her in a flash. It grabbed her small torso with broken, cold, bloody fingers. Phantom's momentum threw him off of Jaaz's shoulder when she was caught.

He opened his eyes and saw the bloody, mangled corpse take Jaaz's weapon and raise it.

"_NO!_" he shouted.

Time slowed to a crawl. Phantom snatched the weapon away and used it to decapitate the monster, stomping on its skull so hard that it broke underneath his boot, and tearing its arms and legs off, as well.

This all happened within two seconds.

Jaaz caught her breath and stared at her little brother in wonder. His eyes seemed to peirce through whatever was left of the thing; they were a painfully bright green.

"Don't. Touch. My sister," he growled ferociously, his face still puffy from crying and his chest heaving with heavy, angry breaths.

Jaaz gently touched Phantom's shoulder. His gaze snapped to her, and then his eyes dulled a bit; his expression softened.

"It's okay, Dan-E. I'm safe," she assured. "Now how did you do that?"

Phantom glanced at his hands. "I-I'm not sure," he answered honestly.

"The Professor did say that you'd be less vulnerable. Is this what he meant?"

Phantom shrugged. "I guess so," he muttered.

The two stood there for a long while. Jaaz then said to her Cube, "Hovercraft mode."

It transformed into a small, transparent hovercraft, with Jaaz and Phantom in the seats.

"Location. Find humans." The hovercraft began to move 40 miles per hour over the destroyed town. Jaaz and Phantom tried not to look back.

The Cube notified, "Mistress Jaaz, your Cube will need to rest every evening to re-charge itself in order to make this journey."

Jaaz sighed and nodded, stealing a glance at Phantom.

He closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep. How had his world fallen apart so quickly? What if one of those things- those zombies, or whatever they were- killed them? Would the world survive?

He let out a deep breath. All that he wanted to do was forget. Forget that any of this had ever happened and return to his normal life.

But some things are just unforgettable.


	4. Flight

Phantom awoke to Jaaz shaking his shoulder. "Come on, Dan-E," she mumbled softly. "Camp time."

Phantom looked around them and found the cloudy night sky, which was letting loose the tiniest bit of condensation. He didn't say a word as the two ordered their Cubes to set up, turning into a small, transparent tent for each.

Phantom curled up on his side and stared out at another destroyed city. It wasn't Sector AP13, but the results were the same: bloody bodies littered everywhere, rubble and glass scattered all over the ground, the air thick, freezing cold, and hazy.

Phantom shuddered. That probably meant that those things were there, too. Nowhere was safe anymore.

He curled into a fetal position and let out a large breath, a puff of white surrounding his lips. All that he wanted to do now was sleep some more. Sleep and leave reality.

Of course, he didn't get his wish.

**(-Y-)**

Sa5m woke up. She was still on the hovercraft; apparently, wherever they were going next was a long way away.

The inside of the hovercraft was just two rows of seats facing one another, with a narrow walkway between them. The walkway glowed slightly and illuminated the faces of Sa5m's fellow passengers.

Sa5m turned to the right, her neck popping as she did so. Next to her was the little girl she'd saved, who was wide awake, staring at her hands in her lap.

Sa5m now saw that the girl's eyes were a pretty, icy blue, and her hair was straight, shoulder-length, and as black as Sa5m's (minus the thick purple streaks and the thin green ones). She was fair-skinned and unbelievably adorable, like a raven-headed angel. She wore a simple, sky-blue dress with a shiny black belt that held a large silver buckle around her waist and, surprisingly, strange black-and-white shoes. They seemed ancient. They were called….Converse?

The little girl swung her feet around, unaware of Sa5m's consciousness.

Sa5m surprised her by asking, "What's your name?"

"D4nn-E," she answered, looking up into Sa5m's face, which was pierced on her lip and eyebrow, but still pretty. "What's yours?"

"Sa5m."

"Thank you for saving me."

Sa5m smiled. "No problem, kiddo," she replied. Then she said, "Hovercraft. Snack mode. Two child cookies and one small milk."

At Sa5m's side popped out what she'd asked for; she handed it to D4nn-E, who took it thankfully.

D4nn-E thought deeply for a moment, and then said, "My mommy and daddy…they're gone. Do you think that you could be my new mommy?"

Sa5m's cheeks burned. "Um, how about I stay your sister, alright? I mean, of course I'd love you to be a part of my family, but I'm a bit young to be a mom."

D4nn-E titled her head in confusion. "But you're pretty, just like a mommy."

Sa5m laughed quietly and combed a strand of D4nn-E's hair behind her ear, brushing cookie crumbs from her face as she did so. "Well, thanks. How about I be your Auntie?"

D4nn-E shook her head stubbornly. Sa5m estimated her to be about six years old, with the pout that she gave her. "No. You have to be my mommy."

Sa5m smiled at the little girl with the kindest look that she'd given anyone for a long time. "Okay. I'll be your mommy."

D4nn-E smiled and looked like she was about to give Sa5m a hug, but she then realized that she was strapped down to her seat and just proceeded to eat her cookies and drink her milk. "Thank you," she said.

"Now, who's going to be daddy?" Sa5m wondered idly with a laugh. Some girls' thoughts might've, but her thoughts didn't even turn to 7ucker. There just wasn't anything that would make her thoughts go that way. He felt more like an uncle.

Sa5m thought some more and decided to entertain D4nn-E with a made-up person to be her father.

"Let's see. He'd have to look like you," she decided, "With pretty black hair and gorgeous blue eyes."

D4nn-E giggled. "He'd have to be strong," she suggested.

"Yeah, really strong, to help me protect you," Sa5m agreed. "Of course, he'd be handsome; you can't have a scary-looking daddy, can you?"

"Nope," D4nn-E agreed with an endearing smile.

"He'd be kind," Sa5m continued. "He'd accept both you and me for who we are. He'd be brave. And selfless, and honest, and open-hearted as well as open-minded…"

She trailed off, her train of thought disappearing.

D4nn-E tugging at her shirt hem brought her back to reality.

"What would his name be?" she asked curiously.

Sa5m chuckled. "Let's call him Krix." She and D4nn-E giggled at the name; it was so blandly normal that barely anyone used it but adults.

Then D4nn-E let out a huge yawn, stretching her arms above her head as far as her seatbelts would let her.

Sa5m noticed and said, "Looks like someone's getting sleepy. Time to rest."

D4nn-E pouted. "But I want to stay up and talk."

Sa5m shook her head. "Nope. Go to sleep, squirt."

D4nn-E sighed, closing her eyes and turning her head to rest on the small pillow beside it. "Okay. Good night, Mommy."

Sa5m's cheeks burned again, despite the fact that she'd already agreed to be D4nn-E's "mom". "Good night, D4nn-E."

"I love you," D4nn-E mumbled.

Sa5m didn't know why, but she absolutely meant it when she replied, "I love you, too."

Then she tilted her head up and stared at the low ceiling, smiling the tiniest bit. A mom at fifteen? Not what she had expected. Actually, none of this was what she had expected. Not the Forgotten, not the world tearing apart, not her parents dying….

She sucked in a sharp breath at that last thought, fighting tears. No. She wouldn't cry in front of anyone but her grandmother, asleep and in a dimly lit space or not.

She took a deep breath and glanced at D4nn-E again, who was now soundly asleep, her breaths even, her eyes closed. Sa5m found herself smiling again.

"I love you, too," she repeated.

**(-Y-)**

Jaaz's eyes flew open. The whispers.

Phantom's eyes opened a split second after hers. The two commanded their Cubes to go back into watch mode. Phantom, his eyes flicking around wildly, finally settled his gaze on his sister.

"What do we do?"

Jaaz's eyes stared straight into Phantom's, pulsing with fear.

"Run."

They took off as fast as they could, Phantom surpassing Jaaz within seconds. And then one of the creatures grabbed him from behind. He shouted in surprise and, instinctively, used his heel to tear its chest from its stomach, cutting its torso into two.

He whipped his head in Jaaz's direction. She elbowed one in the face and snapped its head back. She broke its neck, but it still had its grip on her arm, and was pulling with unbelievable strength. There was another one pulling on her other arm, so that Jaaz was certain that the two were trying to rip her in two. She writhed and thrashed about, but, despite all of the damage that she caused to them, the horrible, rotting, once-human things kept pulling harder and harder. Jaaz's joints popped, and tears sprang to her eyes.

Phantom tackled the one with its head still on, twisting its arms off and punching its nose with so much force that he broke the cement underneath it. Then he picked the other one up by its legs and crashed its shoulders into the ground, breaking the legs apart and stomping on them so that the bones broke.

Then he said, thinking so quickly that his thoughts were almost incoherent, "Cube. Activate Hover-craft mode."

"You must wait until morning, Dan-E," his Cube answered. Phantom glared at it and shook his head, scooping his limp sister up and running as fast as he could (which was about 50 miles per hour). He checked her face; she was fine. Conscious, even. But she was weak.

And then he ran into something slimy and disgusting. Glowing red eyes scowled millimeters away from his own.

Phantom backpedaled and took a look around him. The corpses were everywhere. The whispers filled his head.

They were surrounding him. Maybe a hundred of them. He was vulnerable: he couldn't set Jaaz down, or she'd be killed, which left his arms occupied. And he couldn't defeat them all with kicking alone. He was done for.

Within a breath, one dashed at him. Phantom closed his eyes.

And then….nothing.

He opened them again, feeling much taller. As he looked around, he saw that the ground…..

The ground was ten feet below him.

He could fly.

He could _fly_.

_He could fly_.

The corpses jumped at him, trying to grab his ankles. A few almost made it, but all that touched Phantom was a single, crusty fingernail against the bottom of his boot.

He stared down at their grotesque, distorted faces in shock for a second. And then he flew away. An ear-splitting Sonic Boom followed shortly after him.

**(-Y-)**

Sa5m peered from behind 7ucker's bony shoulder. She was much shorter than him. Actually, she was much shorter than most kids her age, getting her tininess from both her grandmother and mother.

So she stood on her toes and moved to the side a little bit to get a good view of the man leading them into the bunker.

He was a tall man with intimidating, thick muscles that showed through his simple, tight grey T-shirt with a white circle on it and green camouflage pants. He had close-cropped ashy brown hair, and a thick white scar that ran down the right side of his face. His right eye had no pupils or irises; it was completely milky white. His other eye was bloodshot and muddy brown. His olive skin was glistening with sweat as his left eye scanned the crowd. However, despite his intimidating features, he did not wear the expression of someone that liked to intimidate. His spare lips were pulled down into a frown, but his eyes ( at least one of them) showed endless kindness.

"I am Xith," he stated in a rough, yet friendly, voice. "As you have seen, your last bunker was invaded by those creatures."

"The Forgotten," one person called out.

"Yes. The Forgotten," Xith agreed. "They invaded our last bunker; this will be your new one. It's full of separate rooms and activity areas to keep you entertained. Family members will sleep in the same rooms. We'll provide food and protection from the Forgotten and any other monsters, natural or otherwise, that may attack. We will have breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the designated times. The rules are that children are not allowed to be unattended to- meaning anyone eleven or younger- unless they're sleeping and are under surveillance. Elderly must be assisted as well. We will not tolerate fighting. Anyone that lays a hand on another person in the wrong way gets locked up in a cell by themselves for ten hours. No stealing from anyone, especially not from the cafeteria." Xith's eyes stared into everyone else's at once dead-seriously before he continued. "And finally: no one- _no one_- is permitted to leave this bunker without my say so. Am I clear?"

Everyone nodded vigorously except for Sa5m. She couldn't promise that. Things tend to jump out unexpectedly at you; a situation might call for such an act. Anything could happen. So no promises.

"I am your leader. If there are any problems, bring them to me. If you want to join the Militia, come talk to me. You have to be at least eighteen, and you have to have the ability to fight well. We'll call you all for breakfast soon enough. For now, feel free to explore on your own. All heads of the families, find a bunk for your group. If you have lost your family or are a family of one, come to me; I'll assign you a bunk. Any fights over bunks, and you will be put in solitary confinement. On that note, I'll be seeing you soon."

Xith waved a dismissive hand and walked away. Sa5m stared after him with slight irritation, and then she ran as people began to move around. She was able to duck through and around the bodies that surrounded her easily, and she found herself at Xith's side in no time.

She tapped on his shoulder. He looked down at her. "Is there something that you need, Miss?"

Sa5m nodded. "I want to join the Militia."

"Sorry, ma'am. You're too young and incapable." Xith shook his head.

Sa5m's face turned a bright, angry shade of pink. "Yeah, I kind of figured that. I'm not dotted. But I want to fight. And I can."

Xith turned his gaze back to whatever was ahead of him. "Maybe. But you're young. And maybe you have more skill than I think- you sure as skitz have guts- but we need youth here. In case that you haven't noticed, there aren't a lot of us left."

Sa5m stopped suddenly. Xith stopped, too, and turned to face her. "What do you mean?"

He sighed and leaned down, saying in a low voice, "I've been communicating with the army. Everyone's army. We've been using tanks, missiles, all sorts of skitz against those things."

"The Forgotten?"

"Not just them. The other ones. Didn't you see them?"

"Oh." Sa5m remembered, and shuddered involuntarily. "Yeah. I did."

"Exactly. Those things are _vicious_. No, they're just plain _fwitching_. Everything that we have against them isn't working. We're even using nuclear technology."

Sa5m gasped. Nuclear technology had been banned a long time ago; it was extremely powerful and dangerous. _That_ didn't even work?

Xith continued, "Our soldiers are all but completely gone. Those creatures are too powerful. Our only spark of hope is to hide out until this all blows over. We need kids _here_, not risking their lives. We need them to grow up and have more kids, to keep the human race alive."

Sa5m shook her head vigorously. "That's not going to work. If they're really that powerful, then we'll die anyway."

"Maybe. But we have a better chance here than we do out there. Either way, the Militia is for people that want to _protect_ you kids. It's not for you to participate in." Xith pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, and then looked back at Sa5m.

She looked away. He had a huge point.

Stubbornly, she huffed, "This isn't over."

Xith gave her an irritated look and rose back to his full height. "I've got my eye on you," he warned before turning and heading away.

Sa5m stared after him and, with an angry sigh, walked in the opposite direction.

**(-Y-)**

Phantom fell to the ground, panting. Jaaz sat with her arms curled around her knees, worried.

"Are you okay, Dan-E?"

Phantom didn't answer her, instead closing his eyes. Something beeped, reopening them.

Jaaz lifted up his arm, pushing back his sleeve. Amazingly, against his skin was a message, like a tattoo. **Power level: 286/ 1000. Need rest.**

Jaaz gasped before the ink faded away into Phantom's skin.

He tried to sit up, but she rested a hand on his back. "No. You need rest." She glanced at the sky; the thick haze was turning from black to grey. "Cube. Hover-craft mode."

"Good morning, Jaazm1n3," her Cube greeted before shifting into the hover-craft.

Jaaz scooped up her surprisingly light brother, seating him next to her and watching the door close automatically behind her.

Phantom rested his head against the window, his surroundings turning into a blur. His lifeless parents, covered in blood, flashed in his mind over and over as his eyelids finally closed.

Jaaz glanced at Phantom. Even while he slept, he looked upset. His eyes rolled around underneath his eyelids, and his eyebrows twitched, as if he were uncomfortable or having a bad dream. She sighed and brushed a stray, snowy-white strand of hair out of his face.

"We'll make it through this, Dan-E," she whispered. "I promise."

**(-Y-)**

When the siblings landed and the Cube crawled back onto Jaaz's wrist, Phantom's arm beeped again.

**Power level: 1000/ 1000. **

She sighed in relief and put her Cube into Tent Mode as the ink faded away. Warily, she turned around, expecting to hear whispering. She heard nothing.

And then Phantom woke up.

"No!" he shouted.

"What?"

"No!" he scrambled to his feet and picked Jaaz up, willing himself upward. He shot off.

"Dan-E, what are you doing? You just recovered!" Jaaz looked at her little brother's face. He looked absolutely terrified.

"You won't touch her," he growled.

"Who are you talking to? What's going on?"

Phantom didn't answer her, instead trying to fly even faster.

"Dan-E! Answer me now! Is it the corpses?"

Phantom finally said, "No. It's something way worse."

"How?"

He looked down at her, his eyes glowing, full to the brim with terror.

"They're intelligent. And they can fly, too."

Jaaz gasped and looked over his shoulder. A hint of red mixed with the darkening haze.

"What are they?"

Phantom was knocked out of the sky by a huge, metal tail, creating a dent in the pavement below him. Jaaz yelped in pain; her arm had been broken in the fall, and her head throbbed.

Out of the haze stepped a giant, nightmarish, reptile-like monster with long, sharp, dagger-like teeth and sunken-in, glowing beady eyes. He stared directly at the two, making an ear-splitting noise that sounded like a cross between a scream and a creak.

Jaaz's blood ran cold.

Phantom's gaze couldn't tear away from the eyes.

"Shadows."


	5. Seventeen

**_Seventeen_**

Phantom's eyes were locked onto the hypnotic red of the Shadow's. He felt a feeling- thick and hot, like blood- rush through him, looking for control. He shoved it away, tearing his gaze from the Shadow's and turning to Jaaz, instead.

She was pale, hissing in pain on the ground and holding her left arm, tears streaking trails through the sweat and grime that covered her face.

Phantom glanced back at the Shadow, not looking at its eyes. Its mechanical anatomy mimicked that of an organic one, and Phantom could make out muscles and joints and so forth. The Shadow was tense and ready to attack, which meant no sudden movements.

"Dan-E," squeaked Jaaz, "help."

He wanted to. Really, really badly. But if the Shadow attacked, both Phantom and Jaaz would be killed.

"Hold on, Jaaz," Phantom murmured. "I'm coming."

He had no plan. What was he going to do?

Phantom wasn't the brainiest guy on the planet, and Dan-E hadn't been, either. He couldn't think of anything genius. He felt trapped.

_Oh, whatever_, he thought. He figured that his best shot was to go with the obviously stupid option.

Or, perhaps, the _stupidest_ option.

He lunged at the Shadow, taking it down by its legs. Thank God that he was strong enough to break the metal; otherwise he really would have been a moron. And a dead moron, at that.

The Shadow retaliated, and with much more force than Phantom could handle. It shook its now broken foot, throwing Phantom off, and made the hiss/creaking sound again, its eyes blazing.

The Shadow's voice filled Phantom's head: _You will pay for that, Prince._

Phantom caught himself in midair and snapped his head in the Shadow's direction. Why had it called him "Prince"?

Unfortunately, the Shadow took this as an opening, and it snapped its teeth, which were taller than Phantom, at him. He dodged it, but it still tore a piece of his flesh from his torso, along with a part of his jacket, away.

Shouting in pain, Phantom lost focus and fell to the ground. Jaaz was hyperventilating through her teeth, still clutching her arm.

Luckily for him, Phantom's pain subsided within two seconds, and he took the opportunity to get back on his feet, a low, guttural growl emitting from his throat.

He launched himself at the Shadow, gripping its tail and twirling it around, something that should have been impossible. He slammed it into the cement, making sure not to hit Jaaz, and broke its tail off.

He then dove inside its metal ribcage and snapped the "bones" apart, tossing them away into the dead city. The Shadow roared in pain and tried to slash at Phantom, but its claws were too large to fit through the gaps, and it ended up only helping Phantom in his job.

Phantom then shot out of it, flying up to its eye, dodging the vicious swipe of claws at him, and thrusting his hand into the socket.

To his surprise, he did not punch out a light.

He found something much, much worse.

**(-Y-)**

"Mommy, are you okay?" D4nn-E frowned at Sa5m with concern.

7ucker and Grandma MAN501\1 stared at her in shock for referring to Sa5m as her mother, but Sa5m continued to wolf down her breakfast, nodding.

"Just fine, kiddo," she assured her, her words muffled by food.

Before she knew it, she'd already gone through her entire breakfast. Being so small, the scanner that had gone over her had decreed to the cafeteria that she didn't need much food to sustain her normal amount of energy. But Sa5m _wanted_ to eat more than usual. She wanted to put some meat on her bones and add at least a few inches to her height. Then she'd be able to fight even better than she already could, and Xith wouldhave to let her into the Militia.

Sa5m cleared her place and jogged away from the table, waving at her strange family as she left. She headed down one of the many corridors throughout the bunker and came to a stop at a door to her right labeled "Gym".

Sa5m hopped on a tracker platform, placing the helmet from its stand onto her head and saying, "Activate Tracker Simulation."

"What would you like to do, ma'am?" the tracker asked.

Sa5m replied immediately, "Training combat. Partner: equivalent weight and size. Similar skill."

The simulation took over Sa5m's mind, filling her vision with a plain grey room. The floor was a large mat; standing in front of Sa5m was a faceless, humanoid being, her exact height and size.

"Simulation beginning," the tracker told her.

The humanoid dashed at her.

**(-Y-)**

Phantom clutched what felt like nothing, but when he pulled his hand back, it was a strange, almost-intangible wisp of red mist.

"What the skitz…." He muttered, staring at it.

The end of the mist raised itself and dug into his arm. Despite its almost non-existent feel, the pain that surged through Phantom's body was unbearable. He cried out and fell to the ground, clutching his arm.

Images flashed before his eyes. He couldn't see them all; they were too quick. But some stuck in his head.

He caught an image of and endless, swirling green chasm. Multiple screams filled his head. He saw a dark-skinned girl take out a knife and stab him in the stomach. Jaaz with a gun pressed to her head. Zombie-corpses, reaching out to him, whispering for help. Himself, eyes glowing blood red, teeth long and sharp as knives, standing on a pile of pale, lifeless bodies.

The images made his heart race and climb up his throat. He screamed to the red mist, "_Get…out….of….me_!"

Something wrapped huge, icy-cold arms around Phantom, and he let out a wail of agony.

When he opened his eyes, shivering, the mist was out of him. It began to crawl back to the Shadow's body, but Phantom grabbed it again. His fingers began to glow bright green as he thought of how much he hated all of this crap, how he'd never asked for any of this, and how much he just wanted the stupid mist to vanish and never return.

His fingers blazed completely white, and the mist disappeared. Phantom looked back to the Shadow's body; it disintegrated on the spot. However, instead of turning to dust, it fell to little glowing red marbles, which disappeared, as well.

Phantom was breathing heavily, sweat covering his skin and plastering his hair to his face.

His arm beeped. He rolled up his sleeve and found his power level.

**Power level: 236/1000. Need rest.**

Phantom just then realized that he was completely and totally exhausted. But, with a glance at Jaaz, who was still shaking and pale, he knew that he couldn't rest yet.

He crawled over to Jaaz's side and threw her over his shoulder, darting across and around rubble and broken bodies until he found their Cubes.

"Activate Healing Mode," he told his own Cube, setting his sister down. It scanned both him and Jaaz, turning from clear to red as it passed over her arm.

Immediately, it set to work on his sister. Phantom curled up at her side and whispered, "Jaaz. Are you alright?"

She barely nodded. "I….I think I'll manage," she choked. "You get some rest. I'll tell you if something attacks."

Phantom nodded, closing his eyes. While he didn't like the fact that he was automatically the protector, he already knew that it couldn't be helped. He was the strongest, the fastest, the most capable. And now his job was to protect his sister while they searched for other survivors.

As he fell asleep, Jaaz tried for a smile and lightly tousled his hair. Even through this whole mess, she couldn't help but think of what an amazing brother he was. She was glad that it wouldn't be so easy to lose him.

"Thanks, Professor," she murmured.

**(-Y-)**

Sa5m glowered at her opponent, who had barely any energy left. She herself didn't have that much, but it was a lot more than the simulation.

She grinned and swiftly used her pointy elbow to jab it in its stomach. As it doubled over, she followed the jab with a spin-kick to the head. When it went down, Sa5m backpedaled, raising her fists. Even if this was a simulation, she wanted to fight fair.

The opponent stood slowly, and then weakly ran at her. Sa5m grabbed its wrist and tried to remember that it was a simulation as she snapped it and threw the opponent to the ground.

It raised it hand, which produced a white flag. Sa5m's lips pulled into a full-out smile.

"Impressive," a harsh male voice said.

Sa5m removed her helmet, and, surprisingly, found Xith Sitting on the tracker across from her, sharpening his pocketknife, His expression was unreadable.

"You took it down within five minutes," he continued. "That's pretty good."

Sa5m set the helmet down as she looked at Xith suspiciously. "Why are you here?"

"I got notified in the Master Control Room that someone was on the tracker. I got curious. So, of course, I find you here, beating the crap out of a simulation."

"Is that the real reason? I mean, I have things to do. You might as well cut to the chase." Sa5m raised her eyebrow.

Xith leaned back against the wall. "Fine. I'm curious. Why, exactly, would a skinny little girl want to risk her life in the Militia? You're looking for a thrill, you're suicidal, your parent's in the Militia…..I mean, it's kind of psychotic to ask for something like that, don't you think?"

Sa5m rolled her eyes. "If you really want to know that badly, I hate it when people see me as weak."

Xith whistled. "You must think that your entire life is dotted, then."

Sa5m glared at him. "Shut up and let me finish. Because I hate being weak, I hate people going out of their way to do something for me. I want to do things by myself. And I _especially_ don't want anybody risking their life for my sake. If I joined the Militia, it'd be pretty even."

"Oh." Xith nodded. "So, basically, you're just dottedly selfless."

"No, I'm not. I'm not anything," Sa5m corrected. "I just like to pull my own weight. And others' weight, if necessary."

"Dottedly selfless," Xith sang.

Sa5m sighed, rolled her eyes, and chucked the helmet at Xith. "For a grown man, you act like a skitzing kid."

Xith smirked, catching the helmet. "Who says I'm a grown man?"

"And that's supposed to mean what, exactly?"

Xith waved her closer. Sa5m, scowling, sat down next to him on the tracker, leaning on the wall. Xith whispered, "I'm seventeen."

Sa5m stared at him in shock. And, as she finally saw his face eye level and up close, she cursed herself for being so dotted. Besides the scar, the messed up eye, and the bloodshot good eye, his face was young enough to be seventeen.

Maybe it'd been covered up when his face was so grimy the morning that she'd first met him that had thrown her off, because now he was perfectly clean, something that Sa5m assumed was attributed to the showers (and thank God that the bunker had those).

"Wow," she said, smacking herself on the forehead, "I am completely dotted."

Xith chuckled. "That might be the case. But, besides the fact that I'm only- how old are you?"

"Fifteen."

"Besides the fact that I'm only two years older than you- and I'd thought that you were thirteen, by the way- I'm still head of this bunker. Don't forget that."

Sa5m rolled her eyes for what felt like the millionth time. "Whatever," she replied.

_Only two years older than you, _he'd said.

Wait just a skitzing second.

"You hypocrite!" Sa5m stood and pointed at Xith. "So you're under the age of eighteen, and you join the skitzing _army_, get appointed to be the leader of both the bunker _and_ the Militia, and then I can't even try to protect myself? How the fwitch is that fair?!"

Xith's smirk dissolved, replaced by a blank expression. He focused his muddy brown eye on the wall behind Sa5m. "I guess it's not. But, if you think about, it, I've been training my entire life. I'm tall, fast, strong, and physically capable in every way. My dad, the leader of District NA6's army, is the person that made me the leader."

Sa5m glowered at him for a few more seconds before asking, "So, are you planning to come up with your own answer, or am I just going to have to take the one that our government no doubt had you recite over and over?"

Xith sighed and glared at Sa5m, finally focusing his sight on her face. "My dad gave me this job, okay? He made the rules specific. I'm the one exception. You're pretty much the only one that knows my real age."

"So why tell me?"

"I can tell, just by the few minutes of arguing, conversing- whatever it is that we do- that you're really perceptive. It would've been futile to lie."

"Well, you're not as dotted as I thought you were."

"Why, thank you for realizing that." Xith sighed. "But you can't tell anyone, okay?"

"What, they can't figure it out like I can? Do they need someone to tell them the obvious?" Sa5m highly doubted that anyone was that dotted.

"Well, yeah and no. I act more mature around others than I've been acting with you. I don't know why. I just do. I guess that you're dotted and unnecessary maturity makes me feel like I don't need to play the role of the adult when you have it more than covered." Xith smirked at Sa5m. "But that doesn't change the fact that you aren't allowed in the Militia. If anything, it makes that fact more prominent."

Sa5m sighed and shook her head, snatching the helmet from Xith and placing it on the tracker that it belonged to. "Whatever. This isn't finished."

"It never is," Xith agreed wearily. "I'll be seeing you, ma'am."

"The name's Sa5m MAN501\1," Sa5m snapped.

"Oh. Well, in that case, later, Sa5m."

Sa5m didn't respond as she walked out of the door.

Xith bit back a hysterical chuckle. Oh, skitz. This girl was going to mean a lot of trouble.

**(-Y-)**

"Dan-E, wake up." Jaaz shook her brother's shoulder. It'd been an a few hours since his power level had returned to normal, and nothing had attacked. It was peaceful, in a way, but Jaaz couldn't shake the feeling that they were never safe.

Phantom opened his eyes. He felt great. A bit too great, actually.

Wait a second.

He sat up and checked his side, the memory of the Shadow ripping at his flesh and jacket completely prominent in his mind. But there was nothing there. No blood. His jacket wasn't even torn.

"Jaaz," he began, "did you do something to my side?"

Jaaz, who had been trying as hard as possible not to black out rather than focusing on the battle, looked confused. "No. Why?"

Phantom shook his head. "No reason," he muttered. Maybe that had been a trick of his imagination?

But no. He could still feel the Shadow's teeth sinking into his flesh and pulling until it was ripped apart. He could still remember the pain, which was gone in all of two seconds.

He shook his head. He'd figure it out later. Maybe it wasn't that important, and he was wasting time trying to figure out what had happened.

He stood and, gazing at the thick, light grey haze of the sky, activated his Cube into Hovercraft Mode. Jaaz's arm was now in a cast, so she felt fine as she hopped aboard with her brother and closed the door behind her.

Staring at her arm, she noticed the teleportation ring and felt completely and totally dotted.

"Humanity," she told it, grabbing Phantom's hand. He looked over and saw the ring. A grin spread across his face.

But nothing happened.

Disappointed, Jaaz shook her head. "I guess that it only takes real addresses," she concluded.

"Guess so," Phantom mumbled, dejectedly leaning against his window.

The two siblings sat in silence for the rest of the drive.

**(-Y-)**

"Xith! There's been a security breach at the entrance!"

Sa5m snapped her gaze from her dinner to Xith, who was darting from his table to the long, dark corridor that they had arrived from.

She set down her utensils and, without a word, ducked past the gathering crowd and ran after him, leaving her family wondering what, exactly, the teenaged Goth girl was up to now.

Sa5m silently stopped next to Xith, who was now almost to the end of the tunnel.

"What is it?" she asked.

Xith practically jumped three feet in the air at the sound of her voice. He glared at her, shining his flashlight in her direction. "Go back to your meal. This doesn't concern you."

"Tell me."

"Go. Away."

"_Xith. _Tell me what the fwitch is going on."

"I'm pretty sure that you heard."

"Then who breached the security?"

"That's what I'm about to find out, genius."

"Any suspicions?"

"Oh, just shut up and arrest me already," a new voice said. Xith shined the beam of light ahead of them.

There stood a girl about Sa5m's age, with dark curls framing her chocolate-colored face and cold blue eyes. She wore a black bodysuit with red designs all over it and a red triangle on the chest, as well as a red backpack. A black-and-red helmet was tucked underneath her arm.

"The name's Va1r-E. Va1r-E GRE," she said with a roll of the eyes. "And you guys really need to get better security."


End file.
